Superchilling of fish wins award

Publisert 13.12.2016

The Superchilling of fish project, which aims to remove ice from the supply chain in production and transportation of fish, won the Svifaldan Prize for outstanding concept of the Seafood Conference 2016.

Svifaldan is the prize for outstanding concept of the Seafood Conference 2016. This was the seventh time it was awarded. Its goal is to stimulate discussion and motivate new progressive original thinking.

The Superchilling of fish project has developed a method that makes the use of ice redundant in cooling and storing fish by using new technology to cool fish to -1° to -2°C, on the borderline of being frozen, but cooling it beyond what can be achieved with ice.

The water content of fish ranges from 65 to 85%, depending on the species. Superchilling effectively utilises the fish itself as a cooling medium. The temperature can be maintained without the fish being frozen, so ice becomes unnecessary for either storage or transport.

Eliminating ice to save the environment

Research in the project has showed that the superchilling method has several advantages. The culinary yield of the fish is bigger and the fish’ shelf life is improved, which will save costs for producers.

And perhaps importantly, the elimination of ice reduces the carbon footprint in both production and transportation. Approximately 20 percent of the overall weight in salmon transport is ice. Superchilling makes ice redundant and reduces the strain on much of the transport chain, by air, road or by sea. The extended product shelf life brings in possibilities to ship larger volumes in containers to replace the amount of fresh whitefish exported from Iceland by air.

Approximately 240.000 tonnes of salmon every year are freighted by air to Asia, which means that an estimated 48.000 tonnes of this weight is ice – so a saving equivalent to 1000 jumbo jet flights could be made.

Project partners

The Superchilling of fish project is a collaborative effort of 3X Technology, Iceprotein, FISK Seafood, Skaginn, Grieg Seafood in Norway, Hätälä in Finland, Norway Seafood in Denmark and Matís with support from Nordic Innovation and The Icelandic Centre for Research (Rannís).